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WASHINGTON, September 28, 2009 – The U.S. Broadband Coalition, an assemblage of more than 160 organizations pressing for a comprehensive national broadband strategy, on Thursday released its final report at the Federal Communications Commission. Drew Clark, Editor of Broadband Census News LLC and Executive Director of Broadband Census Data LLC, was co-Chair of the coalition’s Metrics Working Group, together with Rob Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Below are excerpts from the final “policy options” crafted by the working group and included in the final report:

1. Increase funding for the Census Bureau to collect better data on broadband use

Under this option, the Census Bureau would add questions on broadband to the monthly Current Population Survey at least once a year. These questions would include whether the respondent subscribes to broadband and, if so, what they do with it. This would allow a host of data, including income, race, neighborhood, education levels, computer ownership, age, disability and other factors to be collected and analyzed. Second, the Census Bureau would significantly expand its E-stats efforts, which are currently limited to collecting data on e-commerce sales and some data on e-commerce use by manufacturing….

2. Implement the Broadband Data...

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By Andrew Feinberg, Deputy Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, September 24, 2009 - A national broadband strategy must take steps to stimulate adoption and use of technology at a variety of levels, said a report by the U.S. Broadband Coalition, which presented the report at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. The coalition, a non-profit organization made up of more than 160 organizations that provide or depend on broadband services, came together to push for a national broadband plan in mid-2008. The release of the group's report is the culmination of 18 months of work that predates the passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act when the coalition issued a "call to action" to organize and create a national broadband strategy. FCC broadband czar Blair Levin welcomed the group's comprehensive report. Facts needed for the commission to construct a national broadband plan are "not in the record...and not at the FCC," he said. If the government is to invest in broadband, there must be a "level of clarity...a level of certainty...about those facts," Levin cautioned. And when it comes to data and facts, the FCC needs help gathering facts to fulfill its charge from Congress, he said: "I have to tell you, we don't have that." Keeping...

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For Immediate Release

Editor's Note: This press release, issued earlier this evening, is reprinted here as a public service by BroadbandCensus.com. Broadband Census Data LLC is a memer of the U.S. Broadband Coalition, and Executive Director Drew Clark serves as co-chair of the Metrics Working Group, with Rob Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. For more information about the news and data operations of BroadbandCensus.com, please see below. WASHINGTON, September 23, 2009 – The U.S. Broadband Coalition, an unprecedented coalition of more than 160 organizations pressing for a comprehensive national broadband strategy, announced the release of its report at the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday, September 24, 2009. The non-profit coalition includes large and small communications providers of all kinds, high technology companies, manufacturers, labor unions, educational institutions, utilities, consumer groups, public interest organizations, units of state and local government, and many other stakeholders committed to advancing America’s broadband future. The “Report of the U.S. Broadband Coalition on a National Broadband Strategy,” to be released at 9 a.m. in the main commission meeting room of the FCC, is the culmination of more than 18 months’ of effort to coalesce a wide variety of views into a single document. The report...

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A special live Webcast event presented by TV Worldwide, National League of Cities TV, TV Mainstream and BroadbandCensus.com

Press Release

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2009 - Jim Kohlenberger, Chief of Staff in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has confirmed that he will headline the Broadband Stimulus National Town Hall Meeting, live on the Internet, on Thursday, June 4, from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. The free webcast is being produced by BroadbandCensus.com, in cooperation with TV Worldwide, National League of Cities TV, and TV Mainstream. Registration is available at http://www.nlctv.org/events/broadbandstimulus_thm/090604 With the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) scheduled to release their first Notices of Funds Availability (NoFA) by the end of June, the topic of broadband stimulus remains extremely timely. Applicants will be expected to know and understand the landscape as they prepare their submissions. This June 4 webcast is the first of two planned town hall meetings on the broadband stimulus. The second, a the Broadband Stimulus Workshop Webcast, is planned for Thursday, July 9, 2009, from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. That is after the expected release of the NoFA. Registration for the June 4...

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News

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

Editor’s Note: Visit BroadbandCensus.com’s Broadband Wiki for a catalogue of the various broadband-related stimulus proposals, at http://development.broadbandcensus.com/zipcodes/states. WASHINGTON, January 16, 2009 – The House Appropriations Committee on Thursday released draft legislation (PDF) that would provide $6 billion to expand broadband access, both in rural areas and in areas that are generally “underserved” by broadband providers. The draft legislation would split the $6 billion into two pools of $2.85 billion, with one administered by the Rural Utility Service of the Agriculture Department, and the other by the National Telecommunications and Information Agency of the Commerce Department. An additional $350 million would be allocated to NTIA’s budget to fund the administration of broadband-related activities, according to the draft. Several non-profit advocacy organizations expressed satisfaction that the broadband stimulus measures do not appear designed to primarily provide financial benefits for incumbent telecommunications providers. “We urge that these dollars be tied to clear public service principles and concrete administrative accountability,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, in a Thursday letter to David Obey, D-Wis., Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “Broadband as economic recovery should be ‘build-out,’ not ‘bail-out.’” In the debate over broadband stimulus, one emerging dividing line separating...

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BroadbandCensus.com Executive Director Drew Clark to Co-Chair Working Group with Robert Atkinson of Information Technology & Innovation Foundation; Other Groups Announced

Press Release

WASHINGTON, January 10, 2009 - The National Broadband Strategy "Call to Action" on Friday announced the co-chairs of six working groups that are seeking to craft national policies to help promote universal broadband throughout the United States. BroadbandCensus.com Executive Director Drew Clark will co-chair the working group on "Metrics" together with Robert Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Since its launch in January 2008, BroadbandCensus.com has been at the forefront of ensuring that information about local broadband deployment, competition, speeds and quality of service is available and publicly usable. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation think tank has been been a key player in the effort to formulate and promote public policies advancing technological innovation and productivity. The National Broadband Strategy initiative has has been described as "an unprecedented display of consensus, a broad and diverse array of groups concerned about America's broadband future," and an effort aimed at "providing President-elect Obama and the incoming Congress a policy framework for a comprehensive national broadband strategy." The Working Group on "Metrics" has the following charge:

Timely, accurate,...

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News

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, January 8, 2009 – President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that “expanding broadband lines across America” was a key component of the economic plan that he is putting together and for which he is seeking Congressional passage. The announcement came on top of several detailed and specific proposals to include broadband-related investments to the stimulus package currently being considered by legislators and the incoming Obama administration. On Wednesday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released its own eagerly-awaited proposal about the economic benefits of a broadband stimulus plan. It found that $30 billion technology investment would generate 949,000 jobs. The 22-page report, “The Digital Road to Recovery,” linked investment in broadband networks, health information technology and a “smart power grid,” and attempted to estimate job creation based upon a “network effect multiplier.” Some critics took aim at the proposal’s apparent emphasis on tax credits, as opposed to government grants, to undertake a massive deployment of fiber-optic technologies. Others suggested that in attempting to be technology-neutral, and not endorse a specific technology - like fiber-optics - ITIF’s proposal would lead to lower-grade broadband like cable modems or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) modems. The ITIF report found that a $10 billion investment in...

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Blog Entries

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

Editor's Note: This blog entry was originally posted as a response to a post on the Open Infrastructure Alliance listserv, about the National Broadband Strategy effort that Jim Baller, of Baller Herbst Law Group, has been shepherding. WASHINGTON, December 5 - I founded BroadbandCensus.com in January 2008 after my experience of trying to use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain some very basic broadband information: the names of the carriers operating in each ZIP code. We have not yet succeeded in this task. We don't pretend that this data is in itself crucial or even important broadband information. Rather, it is a simple building block upon which citizen-users are empowered to build, through crowdsourcing, new layers of public information about speed, price, availability, reliability and competition. The fight to get data is still important, and it shouldn't be abandoned. Indeed, the possibility of getting this kind of data is the very reason that I am optimistic about the momentum that Jim Baller has been building behind this national broadband strategy. This is one key reason that BroadbandCensus.com is a proud signatory of the strategy statement. At the event on Tuesday, I stood up and asked Larry...

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